'Active shooter' response: If you can’t hide, then run

San Diego State University hosted an active shooter response training program this week with the idea of teaching law enforcement, school and hospital aministrators, safety personnel and others what to do to "proactively handle violent intruders." The ALICE program, which stands forAlert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate was run by Response Options.
— John Gastaldo

San Diego State University hosted an active shooter response training program this week with the idea of teaching law enforcement, school and hospital aministrators, safety personnel and others what to do to "proactively handle violent intruders." The ALICE program, which stands forAlert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate was run by Response Options.
— John Gastaldo

Counter: As a last resort, throw items, yell and act aggressively toward the assailant.

Escape: Evacuate when safe. Once outside, obey police orders.

San Diego  A heavily armed gunman slips onto a school campus and mows down students and staff.

Scenes like that have played out repeatedly across the nation, including in this county, over the years. They prompted San Diego State University officials to host a two-day “active shooter” training course this week for school administrators and law enforcement across Southern California.

Officials said the course was scheduled before the Dec. 14 killing of 26 students and staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

One message of the training was that going on lockdown — the policy at many schools for a number of years — might not be the safest option. It could be better to run.

“If somebody is looking to kill, kill, kill, we want to do whatever we can to lower the body count,” said Kerry Harris, a safety program instructor with Response Options, a critical-incident-response training company based in Texas.

Harris directed classroom training on Monday for about two dozen participants from SDSU, Vista Unified School District, the University of California San Diego, Cal State Los Angeles and Bakersfield, the University of San Diego, the city of Orange’s police department and some private security firms.

The students plan to then train their own colleagues on the defensive tactics learned, including escape, confrontation and heeding security announcements.

“Part of the training is to get people to think about these things before they happen,” said SDSU police Chief Lamine Secka.

He said there has been a major change in how police handle mass shootings. Years ago, it took hours for officers to set up a perimeter, call in SWAT and methodically sweep each room. Now, he said, the first officer on the scene is expected “to go in and do something about it.”

San Diego County has experienced its share of mass shootings at schools, back to 1979 when Brenda Spencer killed two and wounded nine at a San Carlos elementary school. At SDSU in 1996, graduate student Frederick Davidson fatally shot three professors. In 2001, Charles “Andy” Williams killed two and wounded 13 at Santana High School in Santee and Jason Hoffman wounded five at Granite Hills High in La Mesa. And in 2010, Brendan O’Rourke wounded two girls at Kelly Elementary in Carlsbad.

On Tuesday, the training participants put their training into action.

In a sort of macabre game of hide-and-seek, they split into groups with walkie-talkies and disappeared into various first-floor rooms of Olmeca Residencey Hall at SDSU. Harris spoke on his radio: “Intruder alert! Gunman in the Olmeca lobby!”

The “gunman,” Response Options trainer Bret Bandick, went looking for his targets while armed with an air pistol.

He stalked across the lobby to a lounge and hollered, “Hey, I’m going to kill all of you!” He rattled the doorknob and pushed on the door.

Those inside had shoved tables against the door. They kept low. Bandick shouted, “bang, bang, bang, bang” to simulate firing through the door, then roved other hallways and tried more doors.

Those in the lounge seized the chance to run outside. Finally, two role-playing “police” successfully fired at Bandick with air pistols.

The group repeated several scenarios to practice barricades and escapes.

Afterward, participant Jenna Hazleton, academic coordinator for residential education at SDSU, said the training made her sure she could do her part in an emergency. “I’d be trying to send text messages, get information to the students,” Hazleton said.

Anthony Keen, residence coordinator at SDSU, admitted the scenarios were “nerve-wracking,” but gave him confidence.

Secka said all freshman at SDSU will undergo a 90-minute safety course based on this training program as part of orientation in the fall.

San Diego County mass school shootings

1979 - Brenda Spencer, 16, shot and killed two and wounded eight at Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Carlos.